Through the strands Volume 0
by Greymangames
Summary: Shore leave has been cut short, and the admiral is as restless as ever. Plaguing night terrors keep him from gaining his much needed sleep, but every dream has a meaning. What could this mean? As the time draws near, the crew of the ghostshadow, assigned to patrol the azure nebula, will start their adventure through the strands... Story is a tale of things to come...


_**I do not own Star Trek online in any way. But if I did, I would probably suck at running it.**_

 _Time is a fragile thing, yet it existing in a continuum, an infinite span of whatever time lies in. Yet it is possible to travel back and forth between two points, without rupturing the time stream. It is a marvelous thing. But there are not four dimensions, in fact there are eleven, three of which we can observe and understand. But what if I told you that it was possible to travel six dimensions? Possible to enter alternate timelines and perhaps witness the birth time itself? You see, that is the story I will tell. A story about one ship, traveling the strands of time, lost, but not forever._

 **Pain. Terrible pain. That's all it knew at the moment it had homed upon the strand. The stream's Guardian had been keeping watch over the strands that it had sworn to protect, keeping it from danger. It's nature had allowed the Guardian to keep order in the vast construct of threads that made up its surroundings, able to address dangers in one place and another at the same time; it was no longer bound to the physical form that it once was. This powerful being, the Guardian, had felt a presence that had seemed to had taken refuge near one of the strands that ran close along the prime, and had gone to investigate the intrusion. As the Guardian had gotten closer and closer to the presence, it was suddenly snared in a hellish cage. It was a trap! The Guardian had struggled and struck the ethereal, hellish cage that had entrapped it, making no less that a scratch in it's surface. The Guardian had fought the snare to the point where he had been pulled into the stand, taking physical form once more. But before he could fully form within the strand...**

 **He cried out to the stream.**

Carlos Zuñigo woke up drenched in sweat. This was the third time it had happened since stardate 93554.58. Ever since he had that encounter with the rift from the run in from the Romulan Warbird _Relentless Destroyer,_ he had been getting less and less hours of sleep, and it was only recently that he had been having these nightmares. The onboard doctors hadn't been able to explain it; hell, the best doctors in the quadrant couldn't explain it. He'd have to live with it.

Vice Admiral Carlos was relatively young admiral, being only 31 when he became Rear Admiral, and 37 when he became Vice Admiral. His current ship, the successor to the recently re-crewed USS Ghostshadow, was a phantom class Intel escort, given to him when the ship was about to be decommissioned from service, due to the wear and tear it had to endure, and it didn't help that the hull was dramatically damaged in a fight with an Iconian fleet. At that time, the little defiant class ship, equipped with a cloaking device, was a powerhouse that could deal out damage, but couldn't take much before extensive repairs were needed. Thankfully, The Rear Admiral was able to save the ship from the junkyard, albeit he couldn't command the ship again.

This is where the successor comes in. A phantom Intel escort, the USS Ghostshadow-A was an upgrade to the defiant in almost every respect. It was able to take and deal more damage to anyone in it's way, and with its heavy phaser lance, able to destroy opposers in a matter of seconds. The Ghostshadow-A was also equipped with 2 drones that launched from a hatch in the back of the ship that analyzed an enemy vessel for weaknesses, making the enemy vulnerable. When the heavy phaser lance is combined with this tactic, it's able to penetrate shields completely. It was a complete beauty to behold.

Currently, the ship is equipped with 3 **Ultra** rareantiproton duel beam banks on its fore with modifiers that people would kill for, and an crystalline antiproton torpedo that was acquired after a few experiments with crystal lattices and their ability to hold particles. On its aft, 2 Omni-directional antiproton arrays, one of which is of the ancient variant taken from an obelisk carrier, and a Borg cutting beam as well. This, combined with the vulnerability locators, bio-neural infusion circuits, assimilated console, zero-point energy conduit, and tachyokinetic converter, allows it do at least 6 times the damage in the right hands.

The ship was currently on its way to ESD to grant leave to most of it's crew. From what they had heard, Q had appeared once again (in an attempted dramatic fashion, I assure you) in the rotunda that connected the exchange, tailor, and shops, offering passage to his winter wonderland once again. Most of the crew had taken interest, even though they wouldn't admit it out in the open.

Carlos had been at his study, contemplating his nightmares after writing them down (a habit he had developed at his first command of the Arizona), when the ship intercom pinged.

"Sir, message from star-fleet. Priority one."

"Patch it to my terminal."

"Yes sir."

The crew of this vessel were no pushovers, that's for sure. The crew of the Ghostshadow had always been there from the beginning. Sure there had been the occasional transfers of bridge officers to other vessels, but the atmosphere had remained the same on the bridge, even if it was a bit flamboyant.

He had been lost in thought when the transmission had come through, causing Carlos to jump a bit out of his seat when Admiral Quinn came on.

"Ah Carlos, good to see you again."

"Likewise sir." Carlos said with a bit of shakiness in his voice.

"...something wrong Carlos?" A raised eyebrow could be seen on Quinn's face.

Shifting in his chair, he responded.

"Nothing Quinn, just...a bit of a shock."

"Hope so, we've been getting reports of quantum anomalies in the azure nebula."

Straight to the point eh? That was something that Quinn didn't normally do unless under stress. But the azure nebula? The same one that we had been sent to investigate an anomaly years before? Surely not a coincidence, right?

"And you want me to go investigate? You do know that this is an escort, not a science ship. That and you don't exactly have jurisdiction over me right now." It was a brash response, but he had just gotten up from a restless sleep, so he thought he had an excuse. After all, he was on leave.

"Actually no. We've already gotten a task force en-route toward the anomaly's last known location. Unfortunately your shore leave is going to be cut a little short. I'm ordering you to join the task force. As I've heard, the Tholians are getting a bit uncomfortable by our presence in the nebula."

That was reasonable, but there were still questions. Why him? Why ask him when he was sir far out from the nebula? Sure he had some experience with other quantum realities, but that was Admiral Wedges specialty, not his. Normally he wouldn't ask such questions, but it intrigued him that a powerful ship like his would be called on to aid a task force full of equally formidable ships. Then again, most of the captains behind those ships were wet behind the ears still, or as his chief engineer would say, _fresh out of drydock._ Not the best analogy, but it still earned a few chuckles from the engineering crew.

In a perplexed voice, Carlos responded.

"But sir, wouldn't Admiral Wedge be the better option? He's got more experience in situations like these."

"Not exactly. It hasn't been confirmed if these anomalies lead to other realities, and the readings don't match up with the data that Wedge gave us. That and you'd be acting as a patrol vessel. Wedge is also currently on leave at the moment, last I me I heard he was enjoying the winter wonderland that Q conjured up."

 _Oh you had to pull that card huh? Well, nobody ever said karma was ever not a bitch._

 _Still, Damnit._

 _"_ Very well sir, I'll be en-route shortly."

"Good, I'll expect a confirmation by the task force leader when you arrive."

And with that the terminal resumed it's normal functions.

 _Oh boy, how am I going to explain this to the crew._

 _Brilliant._

Getting up from his chair, and straightening his uniform, he walked over to the replicator.

"Orange soda, cold, with ice."

In a display of sparkling particles, the beverage appeared...?

... _aye carramba..._

In the replicator was a mug of earl gray tea, hot. Someone must have noticed his tendency to mimic Picard at points.

 _This is either a prank, or a crude joke pulled on by the crew._

 _...aye carramba..._

"ACHOO!"

 _Someone must have mentioned me_

 _..._

 _Or Carlos found my little joke by now. Can't wait to see the look on his face!_

Yanel was fidgeting excitedly in her hiding spot on the bridge with her active cameo on. She had reprogrammed the replicator to dispense earl grey tea whenever the admiral orders his favorite beverage.

She had always noticed how surprisingly similar Carlos' speech and behavior was to Captain, or at this point, ambassador Picard's behavior when in command.

You see, Cmdr. Yanel was a trill, a symbiotic species that passed on memories from one host to another (though Yanel wasn't the name of the symbiote, she had always said that its name carried a title of shame). She had served on the Big E during the confrontation with the first crystalline entity, and had continued to do so until...She couldn't remember, something about a faulty transition between hosts (her previous host had supposedly been partially vaporized upon contact with a stray phaser beam fired by a malfunctioning phaser).

She was just about to initiate phase 2 of her prank when...

"Do you require assistance Yanel?"

She had nearly jumped straight through the ceiling of the bridge when she heard that monotone voice.

"Or are you doing one of your childish pranks on the captain again?"

 _How in the blazes did he see me?_

"I can tell by your sudden absence of movement that your wondering how I noticed you."

 _!_

"If you must know, you sneezed."

 _Oh, I did, didn't I..._

Deactivating her cameo, she stood before her jeopardizer.

It was Allen, a liberated Borg drone from unimatrix 09, and a science officer aboard the ghostshadow. He was working the night shift on the bridge when he noticed the Tattooed jester sneaking towards the ready room. The only reason he didn't speak up as soon as he saw her was that he had to be sure of her intentions first. However, when the trill had sneezed, he felt that it was appropriate to sabotage her.

"Must you always ruin the party Allen?" Yanel teased.

"I do not see how this is a party commander, and as I recall, you are not in a position to talk your way out of this offense." Allen's cold monotone voice rarely changed much at all; it was almost impossible to tell if he was being serious or not. Then again, he was a former Borg; they rarely showed emotion.

"Offense? Hah! That was hardly an offense! What good is living if you don't lighten up and have some fun?"

"As I see it commander, I am able to sentence you to medical confinement under certain circumstances. And as I see it right now, you are behaving unnaturally."

Yanel at that point burst into melodious laughter at that statement. Her? Acting unnatural? Since when did Yanel ever not act unnaturally?

It wasn't until her laughing fit had died down that she noticed that Allen still had that same expression on his face. One of unchanging monotonous seriousness, devoid of emotion and replaced with cold logic.

 _...shit..._

 _...is he serious?_

A single drop of sweat went down Yanel's forehead. Desperately, her eyes started to dart around, looking for a way out.

"Well, would you look at the time! I uh..got a...um...session planned in the holodeck with Elisa!"

Yanel was walking backwards toward the turbo-lift slowly, all the while sputtering her words and excuses while at the same time, Allen inched closer and closer to the flamboyant officer.

"...and I've got aikido planned with kawtok at three!"

 _Damnit Yanel think of something! He's getting closer by the second!_

She was stumbling in her steps now, tripping over chairs all the while trying to make toward the turbo-lift.

"Oh yeah! I've also got dinner with one of the crew members! Um...I think his name was...uhh...Brandon?"

She had reached the turbo-lift, and was now frantically pressing on the call button in order to make her escape.

But it never came.

And it was at that moment, Yanel knew...

She fucked up.

Allen was right on top of her at this point, bearing down onto the cowering trill. The atmosphere was palpable with terror around the jester, and several of the night shift officers had taken notice of the blubbering commander, cornered by the large gray behemoth covered in cybertronics.

"OHGODPLEASEDONTTAKEMEIHAVETOOMUCHTODOTODAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa...?"

 _..._

 _Am I dead?_

"Allen, would you kindly not terrorize the first officer?"

Yanel open eyes that she didn't remember closing, and slowly light entered her retinas. And as soon as she did...

 _Hold on...is that?..._

 _Sherlene?_

"SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSS!"

Yanel had pounced on her younger sister as soon as Allen had stepped back from the tattooed jester, tackling her to the ground in a bear hug while several people laughed at the sudden display of excitement.

Some of them however, most of which had just walked onto the bridge, backed away at the sight, obviously unprepared for the scene that unfolded.

Sherlene had been in the sobbing grip of Yanel for sometime before she had to ask some of the crew members to pry her of, while at the same time Yanel had been sobbing on about how terrified she had been when cornered by Allen. So when the new crew had seen this...

They just walked back into the turbo-lift and left.

Those who stayed had been with the ghostshadow for some time, or had been in a close friendship with Yanel (who couldn't! She was quite a cheerful character to be around sometimes.).

In fact most of them had known a peculiar fact abou the relation between the two sisters.

Sherlene was human.

You see, their 'father', Jarix, was a trill, born on a colony world near the federation/romulan border during the ongoing conflicts within the romulan empire's senate. It was on that planet that he lost his first wife to a romulan attack. You see, after the Shinzon incident, the empire had been thrown into disarray for a short period of time, and with almost no leader to call to, a splinter cell of the romulan navy had assaulted the federation border world. His first wife, Retáña, had been shot in the back by a romulan subcommander whilst trying to escape the hospital where she had just given birth to Yanel. It was only by sheer luck that Jarix was able to keep Yanel away from harm, but in the process, he lost his right eye, his dominant eye. He had been skeward by piece of debris from the chin up through his right frontal lobe whilst trying to get his daughter, going through his eye and brain.

It was only 8 months later when he met Jessica. A human female who had recently divorced her husband due to affairs he kept on having, along with his tendency to come home drunk (not that he wasn't a douche during those times. Quite the opposite really, he was really fun to be around.). The two had taken notice of each other a couple of times while working together on a colony far more inward in federation space. It was there that they married and had Sherlene. She looked almost completely like her mother, with her brown eyes and Latino skin, along with her dirty blonde hair.

As time went on, the two half-sisters grew together as much as they looked and acted apart. While Sherlene was always the calmer and more straightforward person, with her look being that of Latino origin (as well at cutting her hair to its roots leaving nothing but a shaved head of stubs), Yanel was...outgoing. She had attracted quite a many crew members her direction with her shirt ginger hair and her petite figure. She had waved them off after flirting with them a couple of times, but her eyes were set on another prize.

The admiral himself.

She had her eyes on Carlos the day she was assigned to the ghostshadow, constantly flirting with him whenever the chance arose. To the admiral, it was nothing short of amusing. He had dealt with sexually frustrated women in the past, and she was no different.

But I digress.

Yanel had not expected for her younger sister to show up on the ghostshadow, considering the ships main function as an intelligence gatherer (sometimes diving deep into enemy territory), so this was quite the shock to her system.

Still, the crew members from before had no luck prying Yanel off of her younger sister.

A muffled voice spoke up from under Yanel.

" _Sigh.._ nice to see you too sis...now could you please get off me?"

Yanel had ceased her sobbing and perked her head up, looking around with a confused face.

As soon as she looked at the situation that she had gotten herself into, her face turned from confusion to a sheepish grin.

"Sorry sherlene, I just happened to be that big and gray over here had been terrorizing me, _profoundly_." She said while getting of her sister

She sent a menacing glare at the former drone, earning the recession of various crew members who knew her well.

Sherlene, noticing this, tried to diffuse the situation.

"He was doing his job sis, you can't blame him."

Now that glare was facing _her_.

"What would you know about him sher? All he wants to do is terro-"

 _Wait..._

 _Why is Sherlene here?_

 _More importantly, when?_

"Hey sis, how come you he-"

"ADMIRAL ON DECK!"

 _God damnit!_

The sound of a hundred feet stomping could be heard on the bridge.

"At ease gentlemen."

Carlos had come out of his ready room, looking as _dashing_ as ever, but he had a look of annoyance on his face.

He walked toward the viewscreen in a hunched stride, letting each footstep fall heavily onto the floor, and looked out at the stars streaking by.

The crew knew what this meant.

It was a sign of bad things to come.

Finally, after some time looking out at the void of space, he turned to the crew.

"Gentlemen, I'm afraid out shore leave is going to be cut short."

A few upset looks could be seen throughout the bridge, with a few groans here and there. They were all looking forward to their shore leave. Too have it cut short this early was uncalled for.

"We've been assigned to a task force looking into quantum anomalies appearing in the azure nebula due the increasing unrest of tholians near the area. As soon as we arrive, we are to contact the task force leader in order to confirm our arrival."

 _First I get terrorized by that damnable gray behemoth, and now this! Does the universe hate me or something!?_

"Once there, we will be assigned to patrol sweeps along the vicinity of the task force operating area. This is going to be a long assignment, so you may want to inform your kin as soon as possible."

Yanel's face drooped with disappointment and sadness; she thought that this day was getting worse by the minute.

 _Guess I'll have to inform the ki-_

"Sir, did starfleet ever mention when the ghostshadow had to arrive?" One of the crew member inquired.

 _Wha-_

"As a matter of fact, no they didn't. What are you implying?" Carlos replied.

 _Where is this going?_

"You don't believe we could um, stop for a 'resupply' could we?"

 _...oh_

"...yes I believe we could. After all, we **are** low on 'emergency batteries'. I suppose during that time, some of us could take some time to 'recuperate'." Carlos answered, a sly smile spreading across his face.

 _...OH_

A jubilant smile spread across Yanel's face.

 _This is going to be FUN..._

"Has the package been sent?"

"Yes, we should be set for phase two to begin."

"Excellent. As soon as phase one is completed, all should fall into place for phase two."

"That is indeed correct, my Liege, but resources have been cut from resistance attacks across several _th'rels."_

"Send detachments do deal with them. Our weapon must be complete one phase 3 begins."

"At once sir, glory to the eternal empire."

"Glory to the eternal empire."

The stranger threw away the communicator, attempting to leave next to no evidence of his presence. There had been someone trailing him for some time, evident by the resistance attacks that had hindered their progress. This perpetrator had not been seen yet, his only presence marked by the sounds of footsteps behind the stranger. But he was sure that he wouldn't be able to track him here. After all, this winter wonderland had been conjured up by mere thought alone by none other than Q, and existed in a pocket dimension within this universe. It was beautiful in it's own way, but he did not have time to admire the scenery, he had to keep moving.

As the stranger turned back to whence he came, another presence was watching him, hiding in the trees above the stranger as he walked back to the rotunda where Q was. The spy had heard enough to warn the resistance leaders of the oncoming storm that was over the horizon, but there was not enough to stop the empire. The threat of total annihilation still loomed over the _mor'iquu,_ and with it, the end of days.

Perhaps there was some way to prevent this. There had to be. After all, this was a _rou'quar,_ it was not bound to the prime. The empire could not coerce it to follow its twisted regime. It was rouge; it followed it's own rules.

He had taken interest in a young admiral of this world who had experience with situations like this. Recently, the admiral had been taken into another _th'rel_ along with the interloper. He had been closely monitored after the incident and was beginning to show signs of _ha'kuul_. It was not long before something would happen around the young admiral. Perhaps he could push him in the right direction.

The spy took out a datapad out of his trench coat that he had been wearing and began typing on the surface in quick, but precise keystrokes.

A few moments later and after some satisfaction with his work, he put the pad back into his trench coat, and vanished from view.

 **A/n:**

 **Hey guys! I'm back! And I REAAAALLLLY want to apologize about that long break in between activity. I had lost interest into my other stories, and had problems with school during those times. But then I thought 'hey? I could probably salvage one of these unfinished stories and put them into one big novella!' Now remember, this is only the first chapter of volume zero of through the strands, so expect more to come guys! I've got a HUGE thing planned for our flamboyant crew!**

 **See ya in the next chapter!**


End file.
